This article first appeared on HaltonHillsToday Jan. 30.
Crime rates – specifically for firearm offences, intimate partner violence, hate-related occurrences and auto thefts – are rising in Halton.
During a recent police board meeting, HRPS Chief Stephen Tanner outlined the troubling trends.
“We have a lot of trends in the region and across Ontario happening right now,” Tanner said. “Certainly, firearms are a concern and they’re on the rise.”
From 2021 to 2022, firearm-related occurrences skyrocketed from around 30 to nearly 80.
Tanner also touched on auto theft - a category that has risen significantly in recent times. Whether thieves break into a home to steal keys, or are able to use a signal booster to extend the range of key fobs, they are finding ways to steal cars – typically luxury SUVs from Mercedes, Lexus and Cadillac, according to a previous media release.
Tanner said if auto thefts were removed from the total crime count for 2022, the crime clearance rate – the amount of crimes solved by police – would actually increase.
“In 2022 and 2023, because of auto theft, it looks like less work is being done, which I don’t think is fair to all the work that’s being done by our frontline members,” Tanner said. “In fact, we know in 2022 our frontline officers saw around 1,000 more occurrences than 2021, but the per cent clearance rate went down.”
As of June 2023, approximately 600 vehicles had been stolen in Halton, and the theft rate had jumped between 200 and 300 per cent from 2021.
Despite the increases in several categories, Halton remains one of the safest regions to live in across Canada, having the country’s lowest crime rate in 2022, according to Statistics Canada - something the community has achieved for 24 years in a row.
